EPA RFS Volume Targets

U.S. EPA Finalizes Biofuel Mandates for 2023-2025

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 21 issued a final rule establishing the volume requirements and percentage standards for cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel for 2023-2025 under the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, program. The final rule establishes renewable fuel blending volumes of 20.94, 21.54, and 22.33 billion gallons…...

GHG emissions

U.S. EPA’s Proposed Power Plant Emission Rule Relies on Carbon Capture Technology

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 11 proposed new rules to limit carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, with emission limits phasing in over the next decade. The proposed standards rely on carbon capture and sequestration, low-emission hydrogen co-firing, and natural gas co-firing technologies to achieve emissions reductions. Starting in 2030, the…...

US Retail Fuel Prices

U.S. Gasoline and Diesel Prices Projected to Fall in 2023 and 2024: EIA

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects retail gasoline and diesel prices to decrease in 2023 and 2024, following record highs during the first six months of 2022. The expected price decline can be attributed to projections of lower demand expansion for diesel and motor gasoline, due to high production costs and high inflation. The…...

Strategic Petroleum Reserves

U.S. Energy Department Initiates Process to Refill Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Petroleum Reserves announced on Dec. 16 that it will begin repurchasing crude oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserves, or SPR, by buying oil at a lower price than the $96 per barrel average it was sold for. This will be the first fixed price replenishment, in order to secure…...

Oil Gas Methane

U.S. Interior Proposes Updates to Gas Flaring Rule

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule to address wastage of natural gas by flaring and venting during oil and gas production on federal and tribal lands. The main purpose of the rule is to increase efficiency by reducing the gas being wasted and expected to generate $39.8 million…...

U.S. Energy Department Announces Crude Oil Purchase to Test Market

UK North Sea Oil and Gas Sector to Cut Decommissioning Costs by Additional £3.7 Billion

The North Sea Transition Authority on Nov. 22 announced a new cost efficiency target for redundant oil and gas infrastructure. The authority is reducing the total projection for decommissioning redundant platforms, wells, and pipelines by an extra 10 percent, from £37 billion to £33.3 billion, between 2023 and the end of 2028. The 10 percent…...

oil eia pulse

U.S. Residential Heating Oil Prices Higher Year-on-Year as Winter Heating Season Starts

U.S. heating oil prices were 65 percent higher during October 2022, compared to October 2021, according to a Nov. 17 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Moreover, residential heating oil prices increased to a yearly record of $5.90 per gallon on Nov. 7, 2022, due to a combination of tight storage inventories, low imports,…...

basin eia pulse

Permian Basin Well Productivity Reached Record High in 2021: EIA

The average productivity of new oil and gas wells in the Permian Basin continued to increase for 12 straight years, reaching record highs in 2021, according to a Sept. 30 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In June 2022, the Permian Basin, which spans across western Texas and eastern New Mexico, constituted for around…...

oil drilling pulse

U.S. Interior Proposes Rules to Strengthen Offshore Drilling Safety

The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Sept. 14 proposed new and revised safety rules and standards for oil and gas operations at the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. This proposal is in the extension of the 2019 Well Control Rule and mainly focuses on well integrity and…...

Oil Gas Methane

U.S. Reinstates Results of Largest Oil Lease Sale Following Inflation Reduction Act

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Sep. 14 announced it has accepted 307 valid high bids from lease sale 257 in the Gulf of Mexico totalling about $190 million. The sale, held in November 2021, offered about 80 million acres, but only 1.7 million were leased. A January 2022 decision by the District Court…...